Winter Over Science in Glaciology

Workshop on Winter Over Science in Glaciologyheld on June 28, 2013 at the Strategic Science in Antarctica - A joint Australian and New Zealand conference
24 – 26 June 2013 . Hobart, Tasmania
Abstract:The way glaciologist conduct sciences has significantly
changed over the 50 years. Year round deployments were the norm in the early
IGY and post IGY days. With improvements to transcontinental transportation
getting to and from Antarctica has become easier. In particular
transcontinental air links weather permitting allow for extremely short
deployments of a few days. Large advances in particular in the area of
computing, remote-sensing and global satellite communication permit scientist
from the comfort of their desks to conduct science which otherwise would have
required an army of helpers and year round deployments. With these large
improvements most scientists now deploy only for a few months if not only a few
weeks to days leaving Antarctica and the year round stations to technicians
tending to specific projects and personal maintaining the stations and
equipment in Antarctica. Long distance traverses are rarely done except for
logistic reasons. Still Antarctica is the last continent on which we have large
data gaps and extremely limited spatial and temporal data coverage. Improving
such coverage is however crucial for understanding rate controlling processes,
regional specifics spatial and temporal variability as well as to constrain
numerical models for predicting future behaviours.
What are the reasons for this change in conducting Antarctic
Science? Are we as a science community missing out on opportunities to conduct
science and improve our understanding of the Antarctic Environment over a large
portion of the year? Are we as a science community obtaining a blurred picture
of Antarctica during summer and missing important processes and changes in
winter?
Has conducting science during the “cold” months gone out of
fashion or has it become so cumbersome that we prefer not to touch this “cold”
iron?
What are the reasons for not conducting science in winter?
Do we just not think about opportunities? Is it the comfort of our warm
home/offices? Is there too much red tape (Health and Safety, Logistics, ...
???) preventing us from making the most out of the entire year?
What science could be done during the summer winter
transition period?
What science could we be doing during the winter months?
What science could be done by station personnel?How could we improve science experiments during winter and
in the transition period?What would be required from a modern work environment to
conduct a year-round deep field science experiment?What technical advances could help us to conduct science
remotely from the comfort of our offices and improve the spatial and temporal
coverage year round?

The workshop will explore these questions with a focus on What kind of measurements would we like to extend over a longer period of the year (including winter)? What kind of work are we currently not doing because it is too difficult? What are the difficulties and what would be needed to overcome those difficulties? What are the reasons for not conducting science in winter?